1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording method for recording a pattern layer (e.g., a color pattern layer, or a black or gray pattern layer) and a white overlaying layer on a longitudinal film base material, and a longitudinal printed matter obtained by the recording method. According to one aspect of the present invention, remote proofing during package printing of such a type that a color image is printed on a white background can precisely be realized by an inexpensive ink jet system.
2. Related Art
To package commodities such as sweets, a method is broadly performed in which a packaging outer box made of paper is covered with a transparent film, and the transparent film is partially or entirely printed so as to arrange a color image on a white background. An alternative method is also broadly performed in which the surface of a packaging bag member made of a plastic is printed so as to arrange the color image on the white background. In such printing, offset printing or flexo printing is usually employed.
In the printing industry, not only high quality in printing but also cost reduction in printed matters and shortening of the printing and delivering time are strictly demanded, and the use of digital data has advanced from decision of design to the start of actual printing by a printing machine. For example, in the work flow of the preparation of printed matters, the steps of the preparation of original data, calibration by direct digital color proofing (DDCP), the preparation of a plate by computer to plate (CTP) and actual printing by a printing machine advance in this order. Even during a DDCP calibrating operation performed to decide the original data, the digital data is frequently sent via electronic mail.
In the above DDCP calibrating operation, a person in charge of calibration or a person in charge of design ordering who has received the digital data via electronic mail not only performs a calibrating or confirming operation on a computer screen but also carries out the calibrating or confirming operation by actual printing on sheets. In this case, as an output system, an ink jet system, a toner system, a thermal transfer system, a dot system or the like is used. However, the printing performed so as to arrange the color image on the white background has a problem such that a satisfactory output quality level cannot necessarily be obtained by the most inexpensive ink jet system.
On the other hand, with a white ink for use in ink jet recording, the ink which contains therein hollow polymer fine particles has been proposed by (e.g., Japanese Patent No. 3562754 or Japanese Patent No. 3639479). However, until now it has not been proposed that the white ink containing these hollow polymer fine particles be used in the remote proofing by the ink jet system.